The 50-year-old actor starred as super-villain Gru in the family crime animation and although Johnny, nine, doesn't want to follow a career in acting, he was desperate to voice one of the reformed rogue's diminutive yellow pill-shaped minions.

He told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper's Seven magazine: ''I don't think he has any interest in acting in general but he loved the minions so much that he wanted to supply a voice.

''On the way out [after filming] he looked at me - he was eight at this point - and he said, 'Hey, that was a really nice crew'. I was like, 'Who are you?' ''

With Johnny not likely to follow in his father's footsteps, family life - including his other child Annie, 12, also with his wife Nancy Walls - has started to take priority, and it lead to Steve ending his time on TV comedy 'The Office'.

He previously explained: ''I needed more time with my family. It sounds cliché, but it's true. Seven years I was gone all day, every day. My kids are 8 and 11, they are only little for a finite time.

''They were here, and I wasn't, so it was time to leave. I do sliding ponds, vacations, Disney World with them. Life's too short not to. Every morning I take them to school.

''I truly love it. I love them. I love my wife, Nancy. You know what? Career's luck. Right place, right time. I never lose sight of being fortunate.''